It was impossible to see the Beatles and actually hear them. “All you could hear was the screams and a kind of low rumble, which was the music,” says Johnny A, the Boston-based guitar star whose life was changed by the Fab Four. Although the Beatles had appeared in Boston once before, on September 12, 1964, this Suffolk Downs show nearly doubled the Garden audience of 13,000 as the group was ramping up to the height of its success touring behind Yesterday . . . and Today (Capitol). A’s account of the raggedy sound and swirl of humanity click with the Beatles own frustrations about the sonic and experiential quality of their live performances, which would make the Suffolk Downs show one of the very last Beatles dates. “This was my first real concert,” A says. “I was at the front with my face pressed into the chain link fence. They had the band playing out in the middle of the racetrack. It seemed like they were a mile away but it was maybe 100 feet. It was chaos through the whole set, which lasted something like 20 minutes. What they played is kind of blurry. You had to block your ears to filter out the high end, all the screams, to hear some of the music. George Harrison did ‘If I Needed Someone,’ they did ‘Long Tall Sally’ and, I think, ‘Nowhere Man.’ It was hard to hear, but still an amazing experience.”

The Big Hurt: Crashing Pumpkins I recently had the "was that real, or did I dream that?" feeling about the upcoming Spider-Man musical featuring songs by U2, and I happily concluded that it was a dream.

Easy Star All-Stars | Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band A dub-wise version of the Beatles' classic album seems a novelty concept, but this madly entertaining disc is a buoyant tribute to the flexibility of the Fab Four's open-ended vision of pop, as well as the low-tech sonic trickery perfected in Jamaica's famed Studio One.

Who are they? As Beatle Juice was to the Beatles, so Slipkid are to the Who.

McCartneymania Forget, for a moment, the ugliness concerning Heather Mills and her impending divorce from Paul McCartney.

You had to be there Anyone who grew up with the Beatles will always be tempted to say what Ringo Starr is reported to have said to a John Lennon impersonator: “I knew the real one.”

MICHAUD FOR GOVERNOR | November 03, 2014 However you’ve been following the race for Governor this election season, you’ve been hearing it from all sides, so we’ll make this one brief. We urge you to vote for Michael Michaud.

ADVANCED BEAUTY LESSONS | November 03, 2014 Described as a “body-positive visibility project,” Portland’s Jack Tar 207 is all about representation. Models are encouraged to bring their own clothing and personal belongings to the shoot, which owner-designer LK Weiss says brings out “a level of confidence that many people don’t feel in front of a camera.”

LITERALLY LGBT | October 31, 2014 A community-compiled list of important GBLTQ works through the years.

BACK TO REALITY | September 18, 2014 If you’re a student in southern Maine and are at all interested in arts and humanities, and have a budget of exactly $10 to spend on any one event, there’s a lot in your favor.